1 posts from August 23, 2014

August 23, 2014

GAINESVILLE -- Florida coach Will Muschamp awarded a pair of walk-ons scholarships Friday, honoring wideout and special teams contributor Michael McNeely and kicker Frankie Velez in a team huddle at the end of practice.

“We had two available scholarships. Both of those guys will contribute to our football team,” Muschamp said.

“Mike has been a fantastic special teams player and just a wonderful young man and has done everything we've asked him to do. He will be a huge contributor on special teams. Frankie is still in competition for field goal mixing duties and extra point duties and I think he has done a fantastic job in camp and has been here for five years and done everything we've asked him to do as far as those things. Plugging in last year. Both of those guys very well rewarded.”

Muschamp was a former walk-on at Georgia before earning a scholarship, and called the ability to honor others among the more gratifying experiences as a head coach.

“Awesome, absolutely awesome,” he said.

“I earned a scholarship when I went to school and I’ll never forget the feeling when my coach, Ray Goff, walked up to me and said you earned your scholarship. That means you have now gained the respect of your staff and your teammates, not that you didn’t have it before. But now you’re recognized as one of the guys, not that you weren’t before. And that’s why walk-ons are so important to me. They’re treated no different than a scholarship player. They’re not going to get as many turns and opportunities because obviously we have invested ourselves into some of these scholarship players that we feel like may be further along. But we’re not always right either. So there’s nothing better than that feeling of seeing that today and being able to do that on the field with Frankie and Mike. They’re two very well-deserved young men.”